The worldwide tiger habitat has shrank dramatically over the last 100 years. (Source: Curious Maps)

There are now estimated to be less than 3,200 tigers left in the wild. Researchers and conservationists estimate the species could go extinct in a couple decades without dramatic intervention. (Source: Moss Project)

One of the world's largest and most iconic predators may soon go extinct in the wild

For at least a
million years tigers have roamed the forests and jungles of Asia,
ruling the top of the food chain. But today Tigers are facing a
final bow from the world they once ruled as their habitats have been
destroyed and their numbers slashed by poaching.

At
the start of the twentieth century there were an estimated 100,000
tigers, according to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), an
environmental advocacy firm that studies the unique species.
Over the course of the last century those numbers shrank and several
subspecies -- the Bali, Javan, and Caspian Tigers -- went
extinct.

The WWF has released a new
report estimating that there are now only 3,200 tigers left
in the wild in India, Southeast Asia, Russia, and China. They
estimate that within a generation tigers will become
extinct in the wild, if drastic action is not taken to conserve
them.

Sybille Klenzendorf, director of the WWF-US species
conservation program comments, "There is a real threat of losing
this magnificent animal forever in our lifetime. This would be like
losing the stars in the sky. Three tiger subspecies have gone
extinct, and another, the South China tiger, has not been seen in the
wild in 25 years."

World Bank, a multinational financial
institution that provides loans to developing countries, is
partnering with the WWF in a push to save the beasts.

Keshav
S. Varma, program director of the World Bank's Global Tiger
Initiative comments, "Unless we really crack down on illegal
trade and poachers, tigers in the wild have very little chance. If
the tigers disappear, it is an indication of a comprehensive failure.
It's not just about tigers. If you save the tiger, you are going to
save other species. It provides an excellent indicator of commitment
to biodiversity. If they survive, it shows we are doing our job
right. If they disappear, it shows we are just talking."

Despite
the fact that so few tigers remain, demand for their body parts is at
an all time high on the Asian black markets. Crawford Allan,
director of TRAFFIC-North America, which monitors the trade in
wildlife, comments, "The demand for bones and skin, meat, and
even claws and teeth ... is driving a major crime campaign to wipe
tigers out in the wild."

Lixin Huang, president of the
American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine has teamed with the
WWF to try to fight Chinese natives from using tiger parts in their
traditional remedies. States Huang, "Traditional Chinese
medicine does not need tiger bones to save lives. What we are
dealing with is an old tradition, an old belief that tiger wine can
make their bones stronger. That is not medicine, that is from old
tradition."

The WWF's ambitious goal is to try to get the
tiger population doubled to 6,400 tigers in the wild by 2022.
To do that, they say they will need $13M USD a year and cooperation
from the governments of Bangladesh, China, Europe, India, Indonesia,
Nepal, Russia, the United States, Vietnam, and the Greater Mekong
region, which stretches across Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand and Vietnam.

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